ABOUT

  A must for any wildlife enthusiastic. It was such an unforgetable experience. The trekking insearch for the gorillas started at the bwindi impenetrable forest consetvation meeting point with a wonderful... read more traditional welcome by the staff. All trekkers were segregated in to groups of 08 and were assigned to a see a particular family of gorillas. Trekking took us around 03hr of ascending the steep mountains to finally spot the big gentle beasts. It was such a awesome sight to have experienced.

At the meeting point, for those who require assistance in ascending and descending the mountain during the trekking and to help with their back packs, you could request to hire a local residence for a minimum cost of US20/= who will assit you throughout. Hiking sticks are avaiable free of cost. There will be 04 rangers escorting the group in to the mountains and at the end of the trekking once back at the meeting point depending on how you would want to appreciate them you could tip the head ranger. Do not forget to collect your memorabilia. An official certification of gorilla trekking.

Lake bunyonyi was where I headed to thereafter it was such a pictureque site to see. I would recommand Arcadia Cottages, as this place is at the cliff of the mountain with the view of the lake. Every cottage has the lake view and the cottages were exceptional amazing. The staff too were great.

The tour and the permits for the gorilla trekking was arranged by a company named "car rental uganda" info@carrentaluganda.com. Contact name is Mike. I had to provide the payment upfont for the 01 day permit US600/= which was paid online. Once he had your permit arranged for the day you would want to do the trekking the rest of the itinerary is based on your request. Lake bunyonyi is a must.
I would place 100% of my trust in Mike and the guide/driver who was George.

  Our guide/driver Tony was great and made our trip wonderful. He took the time to ear our meals with us to go over the trip plans and answer any questions... read more we had.

The gorilla hike was amazing and definitely recommend it, the rangers were really helpful and great. Once in a lifetime trip and recommend doing it with Tony and Friendly Gorilla Safaris, they made our trip memorable.

  My 6am early start including stopping for gas right out of the gates (guess they forgot they were picking me up and going to Maasai Mara).

2nd stop was... read more heading NW from centre of Kampala (opposite way of Maasai Mara) to the office to get 2 tire covers that’s required to enter the park (no idea why they’re wasting my time to do this and it wasn’t done the night before + we waited for 30 minutes for Anthony to show up).

3rd stop was an hour outside of Kampala at a “cheap” gas station to actually fill up the tank.

4th stop was an issue with the back wheel that seemed to go away

5th stop was because the radiator was over heating (a local gave us some water)

6th stop was to exchange the $100 USD bill Anthony had given the driver for gas etc. I did the currency conversion myself because what kind of rate are you going to possibly get 3 hours outside of Kampala and who could possibly exchange that much!

7th stop was getting 3rd party insurance for me the tourist in the vehicle

8th stop was the battery connection that came loose because of all the bumps at high speed

9th stop was the radiator again

10th stop was to get the radiator fixed at a spot with a mechanic

The actual tour & hotels were great.
The only thing you need to worry about for the gorillas is getting there and back as it’s all cookie cutter/ same thing by all tour operators.

Ask for pictures of your vehicle, what year and model, last time it was serviced, any issues with the vehicle historically, what happens if it breaks down etc in the middle of no where.

Took us 13.5 hours to get there and soured the experience.

  This was the most amazing trip ever. Friendly gorillas are true professionals. Their prices are competitive, their guides are excellent and so knowledgeable, and their tours are planned and well... read more organized. Anthony and Toni kept us abreast of all the plans of the tour since before we even set foot in Uganda. They were also flexible and allowed us to add more activities to our tour: we even ended up extending our trip with them. If you are between travel companies, think no more. Friendly gorillas is the way to go. Ask for Toni our tour guide!

  If you are a first-time traveler like me and planning to visit Africa for the first time, you have an idea of the fears i had.

Thankfully, Anthony from... read more Friendly Gorillas did an amazing job for me. I asked him over and over but he never got tired of me and kept encouraging me with detailed testimonials and information that made me finally decide to go to Uganda.

During te tour, our guide Chis did us really good. He was knowledgable and explained to us several facts that broadened our Gorilla experience. The fears that I initially dad all went and we concluded our trip with total satisfactions.

I advise you to use Friendly safaris when planning your trip to Uganda even if you are a first time traveller or solo tourist.

thank you Anthony & Chris 🙂

  My friend and I have overall been disappointed by this tour company.

The main issue has been the guide /driver, a very kind man who unfortunately didn't possess... read more the necessaty dynamism and self confidence to be a guide, and who was rather extremely soft spoken and mannered. We had a hard time communicating with him and having our questions answered throughout the whole holiday.

It wouldn't have been a major issue in itself hadn't his gross time mismanagement made us miss our evening flight on the last day. We followed his advice on departure time (even waited for him in the morning!) and clearly mentioned multiple times the latest we had to be at the airport. We ended up arriving 20 mins before our flight. He didn't take any possible traffic in consideration and even wanted us to stop at the Equator when we had already been delayed by lunch.

I have of course tried to have the new tickets (300$) reimboursed by the company. We managed to reach the manager Anthony, whose Whatsapp answers had been a bit patchy throughout the week already, after 1h30 of the phone ringing out.
Despite admitting it was their fault and knowing we had to take the following flight as my friend would have otherwise missed her international connection, he came up with various excuses until it was too late and we didn't have any another choice than to pay ourselves. Also, despite initially saying he wanted to reach a compromise and somehow help, he has since stopped answering my messages (as expected).

The manager had also booked some - if not all - the accomodation at the last minute. I had asked them one month and a half in advance to book a specific place - way below the budget the package allowed, by the way - where a friend stayed, and they told us the night before our arrival in Uganda that the place was fully booked for the first night. Luckily my friend, knowing we were supposed to come, had kept a room for us, but hadn't this happened we would have missed our stay there even after specifically asking for it well in advance (and, I repeat, this place was a homestay way cheaper than the category we were supposed to have).

Last but not least, the car (whose doors didn't hold open and whose icebox didn't work) broke for two days in a row, making us us miss a whole game drive one afternoon and part of it the following day.

I add that I live in Africa and both my friend and I have already quite extensively travelled the continent. This was the first time we had such issues with a tour operator.